The Golden Compass Review

Chris Weitz' film is a well-executed, but not especially warm adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel.

After a recent conversation where I indicated that I care little or not at all for the Harry Potter series, the Pirates of the Carribbean films or the emerging Chronicles of Narnia franchise, a colleague suggested that I share little or nothing in common with average moviegoers... or as I like to call them, "normal" people. While this in fact may be partially true, I would attribute it to the sheer volume of films I see every year, which in 2007 alone numbers into the hundreds. The result of this is not cynicism or contempt for mainstream films, but a need to watch movies that truly inspire or excite, or even just rouse any deeper emotion for a few fleeting hours.

But in a larger sense, I actually disagree because I suspect that the regular folks out there buying tickets feel largely the same way -- they want something more, but have come to accept less. All of which is why The Golden Compass will likely register with many of them in the same way it did with me -- namely with that same ambivalence and disinterest. While being a film of considerable craftsmanship and care, Chris Weitz' franchise-launcher is unfortunately too laden with exposition, explanation and set-up to become much more than a stopgap in our collective appetite for adventure epics.

Never having read the Philip Pullman novel upon which The Golden Compass is based, I'll do my best to describe the plot without succumbing to the pure exposition contained in so much of the characters' dialogue. Essentially, the film follows young Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), a tomboy orphan who lives in a parallel world where people's spirits are externally manifested in the form of different animals; hers, for example, is a shape-shifting ferret named Pantalaimon. One day Lyra receives an unusual gift from one of the elders at the school where she resides: a golden compass. While the gift's purpose is not clear, what becomes immediately evident is that everyone wants to get their hands on it; and soon, Lyra is traveling to the North Pole with Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a mysterious woman who conducts secret experiments on behalf of the school.

Fleeing from her caretaker, Lyra meets a benevolent cowboy named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), and the two enlist a polar bear named Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellen) to help protect her from those who would stop at nothing to retrieve the compass. Before long, Lyra finds herself in the midst of a cross-continental war, fighting alongside her new pals in order to rescue some old friends and prevent the compass from falling in the wrong hands.

This may or may not be a completely accurate assessment of what happens in the film, but I'm less interested in the accuracy of my plot description than the effect it has on the reader. Does any of that make you care about any one or thing? The story itself is so top-heavy with story developments, subplots and idiosyncratic characterizations that it seems like even familiar audiences will only be getting up to speed by the time this installment reaches its conclusion, much less actually becoming emotionally involved. By comparison, the Lord of the Rings movies, which are by all rights the high-water mark in this fantasy-franchise subgenre, seem positively modest when it comes to set-up, instead letting you gently learn to care about the world of the Hobbits before sending them on some unimaginably complex gauntlet. Of course, those films were essentially about one simple idea -- a little Hobbit throwing a ring into a big volcano -- whereas there are spectacular philosophical and intellectual underpinnings to Pullman's universe, at least according to the many, many minutes of expository dialogue. But again, I doubt that anyone but the most well-versed Compass viewer will be able to easily sort them out.

That said, the performances are almost all terrific, starting with Richards as Lyra. Authentic enough as a tomboy not to look frilly on the front lines of battle sequences, the young actress does a great job commanding the screen and should mature into a solid leading lady -- in this franchise, anyway. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig and Kidman each seem to be sharing a private joke (or perhaps the same one) as Lyra's erstwhile caretakers, reveling subtly in the film's mistrust of adults and parental figures. (Seriously, no film since Star Wars has exhibited more doubt in the veracity of what authority figures say than this one, which essentially posits children as truth-bringers and free spirits and their forebears as domineering, manipulative deceivers.)

Additionally, the special effects are consistently convincing, in particular the polar bear design and battle, which will probably prove a little too violent and mature for some younger viewers. But overall, I was left with nothing when the film was over except for a passing respect for the fact the Weitz actually acknowledges the wealth of story developments that are yet unresolved. Ultimately, The Golden Compass is smart and well-executed, professionally mounted and expertly acted, but there was nothing that excited me, and I expect there will be precious little to excite you, no matter whether you want more, or will accept less.